Boulder County, Colo. – Due to the recent progress by CDOT and County Transportation Department crews and contractors, as well as the successful temporary opening of Sunshine Canyon last Sunday, Boulder County will open up both Sunshine Canyon and Flagstaff Road to all users at all times starting on Saturday, Nov. 16. As committed, the county has monitored and conditions on these roads and, due to the recent progress, will be opening the roads to all users.

With the re-opening of SH72 in Coal Creek Canyon by CDOT and the anticipated completion of most of the emergency shoulder repairs on Flagstaff by County Road Maintenance by the weekend, there will be less commuter traffic on Flagstaff, and the road will be safer for all users. For Flagstaff to remain open for all users, it is important that everyone complies with the one lane signal where the road has been washed out.

Sunshine Canyon is now open to all users with completion of the two-lane temporary winter access road along 4 Mile Creek between Boulder Canyon and Salina. The opening of the 4 Mile winter access road should reduce construction vehicle traffic on Sunshine Canyon and Poorman Roads.

What: Cycling allowed in Sunshine Canyon and on Flagstaff Road.

When: Indefinitely, starting Saturday Nov. 16

Who: All motorists and cyclists allowed

Where: All of Sunshine Canyon and Flagstaff Road

These roads will be open to cyclists and motorists for the foreseeable future, save for situations in which dangerous conditions or further significant road reconstruction requires temporary restrictions. Those closures will be posted when the schedules of repairs are finalized.

Bicyclists living on restricted access roads may obtain a bike resident access card that allows legal access the road. The resident access cards are available for cyclists who use their bikes as their primary mode of transportation and use restricted access roads for access. Visit the Boulder County Sheriff’s office to obtain a permit.

Boulder County Transportation Director George Gerstle said “We would like to thank everyone, motorists and bicyclists alike, for their patience while we repair the county roads as quickly as possible. We will be asking for even more patience and understanding when we ask everyone to avoid certain roads for limited times as we continue our work to fix the county roads. We want to remind all residents that while we are making progress on repairing the roads, we still have more to do (please refer to www.BoulderCountyFlood.org for updates), and may have to periodically restrict travel on some roads during periods of construction and repair.

“During this challenging recovery phase, please be considerate of affected residents and stay out of heavily damaged areas. Everyone is working hard to recover and rebuild, and we ask that people respect their work and stay away from damaged areas of the county unless there is a good reason to be there.”

For more information about this opening, or for information about alternative cycling routes during road reconstruction, please contact Hannah Polow at 720-564-2864 or hpolow@bouldercounty.org.